1. (Field of the Invention)
The invention refers to a device for performing mechanical sutures, hydraulically operated and provided with a flexible body, mainly intended for application to intestinal anastomosis in the course of abdominal surgery.
2. (Description of Prior Art)
For a number of years now there have been available on the market mechanical suture devices, with a choice of several different models. For circular sutures of the type known as termino-terminal or latero-terminal, there exist devices which suture by means of metal staples the ends which need to be anastomized.
To this end, said ends are knotted around a metal shaft on the suturing head, straight after which both ends are brought close to each other until good contact has been established; next, the stapling mechanism is brought into operation, whereby the U-shaped metal staples are pushed and forced through the tissue to a sutured, and the staple ends are bent inwards against a support head, folding the staples into a B-shape. Simultaneouosly, a cylindrical blade cuts off the part of the knotted tissue to the inside of the staples, thereby restoring a clear passage in the anastomosis.
Such devices are driven by rigid shafts, with a set of mechanisms which constitute a rigid system from the head to the control mechanism. This constitutes a drawback in terms of the possibilities of access of the device to the field of surgery, since in many cases it is necessary to perform anastomosis in deep and narrow locations.